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There is a clear difference in how you sell simple widgets as opposed to more complex products and services. Specific selling techniques and skill sets are required to be effective at selling either of them. What are the two major sales environments and what are their attributes?

Solution Selling (also known as: strategic selling, relationship selling, complex selling, consultative selling and partnership selling)

1. The customer is looking for ROI (Return on Investment) information since the sale frequently represents a capital investment.

2. Because of the size and complexity of the sale and the number of decision makers involved the sales cycle can be long.

3. The relationship with the customer is paramount.

4. This sounds cliché, but the salesperson is really selling a solution to the customer’s perceived needs.

5. Information gathering can consume a substantial amount of time in solution selling; questioning and listening skills are essential.

6. The salesperson will be dealing with high level, if not C-level, decision makers.

Transactional Selling (also known as: commodity selling and retail selling)

1. Success in transactional sales is oftentimes primarily a result of raw sales activity.

2. The primary role of the transactional salesperson is to match the customer’s needs with a product or service.

3. Surprisingly, there have been studies that indicate that the top one percent of transactional salespeople earn more income than the top one percent of solution salespeople. Transactional sales professionals that can manage themselves and their time so extraordinarily in order to sell enormous amounts of products and services are well compensated.

4. The sales cycle for transactional sales is short.

As the products and services that are available to businesses get more complex, the number of solution selling sales professionals continues to grow. With the explosion of ecommerce the number of traditional transactional sales professionals continues to decline. Simply stated, the Internet is replacing many non-value-added order processors. All of this is good news for salespeople; there is an increasing number of more highly paid and rewarding solution selling jobs available.

Whether you are selling commodities in a transactional environment or selling complex services or products in a solutions based sales environment, it is essential that you use the appropriate and most effective selling techniques for what you are selling and to whom you are selling. I’ve seen too many salespeople get this mixed up and use transactional techniques with customers when they should be using relational techniques and vice versa. It is important for sales managers to keep their sales environment in mind when hiring. Moving a salesperson from one type of selling to another can be difficult and frustrating for everyone, especially if the salesperson has many years of experience in primarily one environment.

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